Portraits

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It has been a huge privilege to meet these amazing people and photograph them, and of course to hear their remarkable stories.

Here is some of my work, I hope you like it.

Lyubov Belenkaya became a partisan after she finished school and eventually joined the army, fighting all the way across Ukraine to Berlin; where she became famous, because she was filmed directing traffic in front of the Brandenberg Gate.

Sofia Yarova is acknowledged as one of The Righteous Among Nations for saving Jews in Kyiv, an act punishable by death. She later became a much loved teacher. When I spent time with her, I felt I was in the presence of someone truly remarkable. She was filled with love.

Anna Volomeytseva was a tail gunner in a Soviet aircraft and is credited with having shot down a German Bf 109 fighter plane. She told me she used to tell off her pilot with great gusto when they were in air battles. Later they got married and spent a happy life together.

As a young girl Valentina Zymnya led a group of men, who had just escaped from their captors (whom they had killed), to safety in the forest under the very nose of a German patrol. Once they got away they were able to join the partisans.